Publisher's Synopsis
AN HISTORICAL NOVEL The story of America's transition from iron-making to steel, and questioning the cause of the 1889 Johnstown Flood. The Bosses Club is a fresh look at the history of the American iron and steel industry and the most infamous flood in America. In this book, you'll learn about the pivotal role Johnstown played in developing America's steel industry; who were that industry's true founders, inventors, innovators and scoundrels; and how negligence by members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, many of whom were friends, colleagues and associates of Andrew Carnegie, contributed to the great Johnstown flood of 1889. Mr. Gregory explains in an historical fiction why so many people lived in the remote Conemaugh Valley starting around 1830, why a perilous earthen dam was constructed upstream from the city and how a series of modifications to the dam by its owners, the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, led to the dam's failure resulting in one of the worst "natural" disasters in American history. The story follows several families during Johnstown's development and questions the accepted history of the 1889 flood as simply a "natural disaster" caused by an act of God. Whether by omission or commission no one will ever know, but there can be no question that the acts of men played a significant role in the events that led to the failure of the South Fork Dam and the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889.
